MMAjunkie.com today learned from sources close to the UFC that Brazilian stalwart Richard Laver recently underwent surgery and will not be serving as translator at Wednesday’s UFC Fight Night 29 event.

Black House MMA representative Derek Lee will fill in for the event, appearing inside the octagon during Wednesday’s fight card to provide English-Portuguese translation for UFC broadcaster Jon Anik and the night’s 20 scheduled fighters.

Laver, a longtime professional translator who also is expected to work at next year’s FIFA World Cup Finals in Brazil, first appeared inside the octagon in June 2012 at “UFC 147: Silva vs. Franklin II” in Belo Horizonte. He’s since been a fixture at seven consecutive Brazilian UFC events, translating not only during the night’s televised fights but also at pre- and post-event news conferences.

He’s expected to return to his duties at next month’s “UFC Fight Night 32: Belfort vs. Henderson” event, which takes place Nov. 9 at Goiania Arena in Goiania, Goias, Brazil.

A total of 26 fighters got their chance to shine on Saturday as part of UFC 190 at Rio de Janeiro’s HSBC Arena. Now that UFC 190 is in the books, it’s time to commence MMAjunkie’s “Three Stars” ceremony.

The man known for cranking submissions to the point of injury added eye-gouging to his repertoire. But is the controversy of Rousimar Palhares too essential to his bizarre, awful appeal for his employers to take any meaningful action against him?